1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cooking appliances, and more particularly, to a rotisserie cooking apparatus which is portable and facilitates convenient handling and cooking of food articles.
2. Description of the Related Art
Rotisserie cooking units are known in the prior art. Rotisserie cookers are used to cook food articles, such as, for example, chicken, roasts, fish, steaks, shish-kebab, etc.
Rotisserie cookers are advantageous because they seal in the natural juices of the food articles while draining off unwanted fat.
Typically, rotisserie cooking units slowly rotate food articles above or adjacent aheat source or heating element. The heating element may be placed in the bottom of the cooker unit such that heat will rise and cook the food articles, or above the food for broiling.
Rotisserie cooking units and methods are known whereby the food articles rotate about a vertical axis in close proximity to a heat source, usually of the resistive electric type, positioned radially of the food articles to be cooked, or centrally along an axis of rotation. Such devices are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,221,638 to Wickenburg, U.S. Pat. No. 4,270,444 to Geissman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,366,750 to Brown and U.S. Pat. No. 5,575196 to Masel et al. Food articles must be manually removed from an interior heating chamber of these type rotisserie cookers. This demands the troublesome chore of carefully manipulating food articles from within the rotisserie cooker without affecting the food articles or injuring oneself by inadvertent contact with the heating element or hot parts inside the cooking chamber.
Small countertop ovens are also available. These ovens are commonly referred to as toaster ovens and are manufactured by a wide variety of domestic and foreign producers. Most such toaster ovens are substantially similar in size, features and functions. The main differences between the various toaster ovens available concern details of the controls and minor differences in the oven capacity and proportions. In a toaster oven, food remains stationary with respect to adjacent heating elements, typically located above and/or below the food platform. These kinds of toaster ovens are generally popular, based on their portable qualities and ability to be placed in areas providing relatively small available space. However, cooking with a toaster oven does not eliminate the cumbersome and potentially dangerous task of retrieval of food articles from an interior heating chamber of the toaster oven.
Attempts have been made to overcome this drawback. U.S. Pat. No. 4,476,848 discloses a countertop oven with a heating tray, having heat-resistant handles for sliding the tray directly into a front portion of the countertop oven. However, this type of toaster oven does not provide the advantageous features of a rotisserie cooker. Furthermore, current rotisserie cooker designs do not facilitate easy manipulation of food articles and prevention of injury to a user.
Another disadvantage of the above mentioned cooking devices is the inability to adequately view the food articles and monitor their preparation. These cooking devices typically include only a small window and/or cooking light which does not provide sufficient viewing capability for monitoring food preparation.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a rotisserie cooking apparatus that is portable for positioning in various locations. In addition, it would be desirable to have a rotisserie cooking apparatus that facilitates easy manipulation of food articles being prepared and avoids injury to a user of the rotisserie cooking apparatus. It would also be desirable for such an apparatus to provide uniform heating of food articles while displaying the food articles being prepared.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to have a rotisserie cooking apparatus that is portable for positioning in various locations. It is another object of the present invention to provide a rotisserie cooking apparatus that facilitates easy manipulation of food articles being prepared and prevention of injury to a user of the rotisserie cooking apparatus.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a rotisserie cooking apparatus that provides uniform heating of food articles while displaying the food articles being prepared.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a rotisserie cooking apparatus which is easily assembled and operated.